SteveStreeting.com

It’s been clear for some time that the US is becoming more and more paranoid about border security. My first trip to the US was in late 1993, when we hopped over to New York on a special deal (less than 2 weeks notice), and I remember it being much like any other international destination, or if anything easier. In particular if you held a British passport, you were pretty much waved through at the border with very little fuss.

Since 2001 things have gotten more difficult, obviously, but in the last 5 years it’s been getting increasingly silly. The need to fingerprint every traveller seems rather unnecessary and certainly slows down the process. On arriving in LA a couple of months ago I was struck by just how unfriendly the officials were, one in particular being pretty damn rude to a family in front of me in the queue who were unsure about which of the multitude of forms they were supposed to fill out when. Sure, it’s really big and clever to swank around with a gun at your hip, shouting at people when they don’t fill in your forms correctly. It’s not universal - recent trips to San Francisco and Boston have been a little more relaxed, but I can’t help but notice that the tension towards ‘outsiders’ appears to still be increasing.

Every time I’ve gone to the US I’ve travelled under the Visa Waiver Programme, which is very convenient - basically you don’t have to apply for a visa if you’re just visiting on business or pleasure, just turn up with your passport, a local address and a return ticket and you’ll be fine. From January 12th next year though, they’ve decided that’s far too easy, and travellers from countries that are eligible for the VWP will have to apply for clearance before travelling, via the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The system appears to be largely automated, so it’s much quicker than getting a ‘real’ visa, but it’s still an extra step to remember to do, and another bureaucratic process that can get screwed up.

I’m not sure why they’ve chosen to do this, I can only assume it’s related to their wish to do pre-checks on travellers, and that they’re not getting ‘enough’ information from airlines - who already have to pre-warn the US authorities of the personal information of incoming travellers (unlike every other country) and give them information which is probably contrary to many local Data Protection laws.

I know 9/11 was a big deal, but honestly I don’t think there’s a need for border control to be quite so unfriendly as it seems to be getting in the US. It’s akin to DRM - hugely overcomplicated processes that mainly put barriers in the way of the kind of people you want to welcome, while almost certainly not impeding the real criminals / terrorists in any proportionate, practical way. Maybe once the current swaggering, fear-mongering chimp of a president is finally gone, the culture of xenophobia and paranoia may start to abate a little.

Urghh.

I appear to have come down with a nasty cough / chest infection and I’m pretty sure I can blame it on sitting through 6 flights in 3 days. Planes these days are breeding grounds for illness, I remember hearing somewhere that flying is actually less healthy since they banned smoking on board, just because now they can get away with recycling the air lots more times and won’t spend money on decent air filters.

My wife almost made me to go to the doctor today about it, something I very rarely do since I generally figure they can’t do anything for viruses anyway so why waste both our times, although I must admit I was starting to consider it this time since secondary infection did seem likely. However, my fever seems to have broken and my lungs appear to have stopped being highly efficient fluid factories as of a few hours ago so I think I’m on the mend. I’m in no state to do anything today though, which sucks because I have a ton of things I should be doing.

Here’s hoping I can get well enough for the next flight I have to take on Saturday to LA, and not come down with some other strain after that.

I just got back from my trip to Gotland, I almost didn’t make it back due to delays on the M25 (surprise surprise) making my transfer from Heathrow back to Gatwick rather late, when I didn’t have that much time to spare. I just about made it by sprinting all the way through Gatwick, getting to the gate just as they were about to leave.

It was a good trip despite the travel overhead, I think there’s a good chance we can build an ongoing working relationship and I’ll end up going back again sometime. If all goes well I’ll talk more about it in future posts.

It struck me how much Gotland and Guernsey have in common - we both have about the same populations (despite Gotland being much bigger), and the main town of Visby is about the same size & population as our St Peter Port, although if anything it’s quieter, maybe because there are less cars. We share the same frustrations at having to shuttle through onshore international hubs, and that we one we can get to isn’t necessarily the best one for international connections (London Gatwick for us, Stockholm Arlanda for them), and a culture which is a little different from the ‘mainland’ we have the most direct connection with. Gotland relies most on tourism, and although Guernsey tends to worship the finance sector these days tourism is still very important, so we share experiences such as ‘cruise ship days’, and their harbour is dominated by a marina awash with expensive yachts too. Both our towns are full of history, theirs very medieval, ours more of a mixture from medieval (e.g. our castle), via Victorian and up to the WWII occupation. I was surprised to discover they don’t have an active fishing industry though - I generally assumed fresh local seafood would be a staple in any island community like it is at home. Anyhow, even though the culture & language are very different, there was an odd sense of familiarity about the place…

The hotel I was staying at had no Internet access so I have a bunch of catching up to do again. I’m back for this week, then I’m off again to Siggraph so apologies if I’m rather brief / flighty with my communications. After Siggraph is over I should finally get to settle down for a while again!

Feel free to whistle the very appropriate but highly copyrighted tune that you’re no doubt already thinking of

I’ve wedged another business trip rather hurriedly into my schedule, sandwiched betwixt (oh, you gotta love that word) our recent holiday and my impending departure for Siggraph in about 10 days. It came up at really short notice and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to fit it around my existing commitments, but luckily I was able to organise it to happen over this weekend, which just about worked (although I still have to leave early Friday). This will be my first trip to Sweden, specifically Gotland, so I’m looking forward to it, although my time there will be short and I’ll spend an enormous amount of time in transit. It’s a bit of a tortuous route, requiring 3 flights and a coach in each direction (Guernsey-Gatwick-Heathrow-Stockholm-Gotland), plus a short transfer to Heathrow Terminal 5 on the way out (uh-oh). I can’t really complain though, living on an island myself I know all about having to shuttle through onshore international hubs, you just learn to live with it - but I have it at both ends this time!

Should be good anyway - with luck some business and/or future partnerships will come out of it, but at the very least it should be an interesting trip.